Students who made racist Twitter posts face sports suspensions, more

Discussion

PLEASE NOTE CHANGES IN POLICY: Commenters are required to have a username with a valid and verified email address. Gloucestertimes.com reserves the right to ban the IP address of any commenter (person) found using multiple aliases under multiple e-mail addresses in a deceptive manner. Posts that do not meet site standards, which can be found here, will be removed.

If you are experiencing problems logging in or posting comments, please contact Disqus' help center by clicking here.

comments powered by Disqus

May 4, 2012

Students who made racist Twitter posts face sports suspensions, more

By Steven Fletcher Staff Writer The Gloucester Daily Times Sat May 05, 2012, 01:53 AM EDT

Gloucester High School students who fired shots amid a national firestorm of racist epithets on Twitter.com last week are being handed significant suspensions from athletic programs and other sanctions, Superintendent of Schools Richard Safier has announced.

In a a prepared statement, Safier said students involved in a stream of racist comments targeting Joel Ward — the Washington Capitals' player whose goal eliminated the Boston Bruins from Stanley Cup play April 18, and one of hockey's few black players — would "lose participation in a sport for a considerable length of time," and any of them with "leadership opportunities in extracurricular activities, or sports," will forfeit those as well,

The district began investigating the incident last week; sources close to the probe have said that the schools identified five students as being involved in the postings. All of the racist comments, which included use of the "N word" and other derogatory remarks targeting blacks, were posted on Twitter.com, which, unlike text messaging, is not sent to private phones or other devices, but publicly available for view around the world. Anyone clicking on at least some of the students' "tweets" was able to easily identify they were from Gloucester.

"I want to state how profoundly disturbing such remarks area att any time and in any context," Safier said. "The racial epithets expressed were compounded by their publication on a national sports website. We take this issue seriously. Such misconduct contradicts the values and standards of Gloucester High School and the Gloucester Public Schools as a whole."

The district, he said, is taking steps to ensure that schools foster an atmosphere that teaches students to respect others, appreciate diversity, and model good citizenship. The students involved in the incident will be required to participate in an extensive program that looks at diversity through personal and environmental awareness, skill building and practical activities.

The schools are also working with the Student Council to develop a high school core values campaign and are reviewing the U.S. History curriculum with regard to it portrayal of the history of race in America.

We will update this story here at gloucestertimes.com as more information becomes available. To have a text update regarding this story or other local breaking news coverage sent to your mobile phone, just sign up for the Times free text-alert service on the gloucestertimes.com homepage. For more coverage, look to tomorrow's print and online editions of the Gloucester Daily Times and gloucestertimes.com.

Steven Fletcher may be contacted at 1-978-283-7000 x3455, or sfletcher@gloucestertimes.com. Follow him on Twitter at @stevengdt.